BEIJING – China’s fifth-generation J-20 jets took part in their first aircombat drills at the start of January, according to a People’s LiberationArmy Air Force announcement.
The exercises featured J-20 aircraft simulating aerial combat with olderJ-16 and J-10 fighters and involved H-6K long-range bombers in somecapacity, the Diplomat reported Tuesday, citing the air force. The locationof the drills, which lasted nine days, has not been disclosed, the newsoutlet noted.[image: In this photo provided by China’s Xinhua News Agency, the J-20stealth fighter jet flies at the China’s International Aviation andAerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2016]
The Chinese Ministry of National Defense declared last fall that the jethad been commissioned into service, but it’s not clear whether the planeshave reached full operational capability.
Adapting the J-20 to current operations is likely to be “a very long andpainful” road, as the US has learned during costly F-22 Raptor and F-35Joint Strike Fighter implementations, said Vasily Kashin, fellow at theCenter for Comprehensive European and International Studies in Moscow. “Theprocess of fifth-gen fighters’ introduction to the US Air Force was verylong and painful… there’s no reason to think China would be different.”
The plane has spurred controversy among US officials who say that the J-20virtually mirrors Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor. “What they’ve been ableto do in such a rapid period of time without any R&D, do you believe thatgives them a competitive advantage?” Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) askedduring a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in 2015.
“They’re making leaps, which are uncommon, at the behest of us, and we knowthis… but we’re not taking any actions against them,” Manchinsaid to then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. “We know theJ-20 is pretty much mirroring our F-22,” the senator said.
Clapper replied that a “proportional response” was being considered andresponse options don’t necessarily follow a tit-for-tat patternwith Beijing. “I at least think it’s good to think about the old saw thatpeople who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks,” the director noted.[image: Director of National Intelligence James Clapper]This response drew harsh criticism from Senator John McCain (R-AZ), whosaid, “So it’s okay for them to steal our secrets that are most important,including our fighters, because we live in a glass house? That isastounding,” McCain said at the time.
But the J-20 isn’t the only new aircraft being added to the Chinese airforce: several also-new J-16 squadrons were added as part of the airforce’s modernizing trend earlier this month, Sputnik reported.